A Hero's Return
by Alisa180
Summary: Underground/SEGA One day, Sonic the Hedgehog vanished. Months later, he reappears, setting off a chain reaction that will eventually lead to the fulfillment of the Prophecy. But how will events that have occurred beyond the empire affect events within?
1. Chapter 1

I'm baaaaaack! I know, it's been ages since I've posted any fanfiction. I just kept getting stuck. Then one day, I was bit by the plot bunny, hard. Next thing I know, I have twelve full pages, the first few of which are posted here, and I had then made a decision to post up the story in chapters as I typed it. Note I did not originally write this with chapters in mind, so the cutoff points may seem a little shaky. What this fic is is basically my own attempt at merging the Underground and SEGA Sonic universes.

Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic. Alright? Otherwise, Unleashed would have been composed of only daytime levels.

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"_You may have captured me, Robotnik, but you cannot stop the prophecy from coming true!"_

"_You underestimate me, 'your highness.' Tell me? Where is Sonic? Or did you not know? He disappeared! Vanished without a trace! And his absence allowed me to do this!"_

"_NO!"_

"_Ah, yes. You understand the situation you're in now, your highness? All you have to do is agree to marry me, and I'll spare both of them."_

"_I…I…"_

"_Perhaps seeing one of them roboticized will speed up your decision…"_

"_Wait! I…You can't win! You won't! You…"_

"_Your highness, even you have to agree, without Sonic, there is no way the prophecy can come true. You've lost."_

n/n/n/n/

The day Sonic disappeared was the day the world ended.

That was the opinion of many. One day, the blue hedgehog had vanished. And no one, not even his siblings, Sonia and Manic, had known what had happened to him. And no one could find him either.

At first not much happened. The two remaining hedgehog siblings continued to be at the forefront of the war they were now fighting. But as the weeks turned into months, it became painfully obvious.

Sonic was gone.

And once Robotnik had made that realization, he had acted. Crushing most of the resistance with a massive SWATbot army, he had captured Sonia and Manic. The two hedgehogs had expected to be roboticized.

But they weren't.

Robotnik had other plans for them. Holding them hostage, he managed to draw Queen Aleena out of hiding and capture her. Instead of roboticizing her, he made a clever move. With Sonia and Manic trapped in individual roboticizers before her eyes, Robotnik had given the queen a choice; Agree to marry him, thus making his reign legal, or see both of her remaining children roboticized. Either way, the result would be the same.

The Resistance was over. Robotnik had won.

Or so everyone thought.

Beyond the empire's borders, events had transpired that would set the stage for something that no one within the empire could ever imagine. And it all added up to one thing.

It wasn't over.

Far from it.

n/n/n/n/

Sonia had been trapped in this metal cage for the Goddess knew how long. She was sitting in a dark room, with absolutely no opening save for an air vent high above. The walls were completely smooth, and solid. From the inside, there were no visible doors. Her brother, Manic, was trapped elsewhere in Robotnik's citadel in a similar situation.

She didn't know nearly as much about the situation outside as she would have liked. All she knew was that she and her brother had been used as pawns for Robotnik's schemes. She shivered at a frightening memory.

She had been trapped in a roboticizer, with Sleet and Dingo watching her. Manic had been in another roboticizer next to hers. Both their medallions had been confiscated to prevent escape. She remembered bracing herself, waiting for the end. But it had never came. Instead, to her surprise, both she and her brother had been released and thrown back into their prisons. It wasn't until later that she had learned from Dingo (whom she could get almost any information out of when he visited using a combination of his simple-mindedness and his infatuation with her) that their mother had been watching the scene. Sonia knew that she and Manic were being kept here in order to make sure that her mother, Queen Aleena, went through with the forced marriage.

What Sonia _didn't_ know was how the Resistance was fairing. How many had escaped the huge SWATbot raids? How many were still fighting? How many had been roboticized? And how were those left doing in this seemingly never-ending fight?

She felt irritation rise up in her at another thought. All this had happened because her other brother, Sonic, had decided to up and leave! Or had he really left? Was he even still alive? And if he was, why didn't he come and help them? Why had he abandoned them?

It was a mystery that no one had the answer to.

n/n/n/n/

To say that Aleena was revolted was an understatement.

The day of the wedding had come all too quickly. Up until that point, she had secretly attempted to find a way, any way, to rescue her children, Sonia and Manic. But she had found nothing. Robotnik hadn't even allowed her to see them after the occasion with the roboticizers.

She didn't want to go through with the wedding. But she had no choice. If she didn't, Robotnik would have both Sonia and Manic roboticized so quickly that not even Sonic would be able to rescue them. Robotnik claimed that he would release the pair after the wedding was over, but she didn't believe for a second.

The Oracle had appeared briefly once, but all he had told her was not to worry, and that help would come from an unexpected source. What kind of help, she had to wonder. She wondered if it was her son, Sonic.

The thought of the missing blue hedgehog always made her well up in tears. What had happened to him? Many presumed him to be dead. She wouldn't believe it until she had solid proof.

It was certainly hard to keep hope now, with everything looking so bleak.

Aleena entered the wedding chapel wearing a wonderful white dress. At the altar down the aisle, was the groom, the evil, vile Dr. Robotnik. Revulsion welled up in her again. As she slowly walked down the aisle, she took note of the faces of the various aristocrats that had come to watch. There wasn't pity, but there was a solemn acceptance, and a great respect that she knew that they all held for her, their queen.

And she knew that none of them hated her for doing this.

One of her first concerns when she had been forced to accept the wedding proposal was that she was abandoning her people, the ones that she had peacefully ruled for years before Robonik. But visits from various aristocrats and even a few disguised Resistance made it very plain. They all knew why she was going through with this. And they had all told her the same thing.

It was alright. They completely understood.

Aleena had been so touched then. And it had helped her so much through these nightmarish days.

She seemed to reach the altar all too quickly. She didn't even glance at her groom. Instead, she focused on the priest, who nodded at her solemnly. The priest opened his book to begin the ceremony.

That's when it happened.

n/n/n/n/

Fates from abroad and within all convened at that moment. Months of events, of battles, of triumphs and failures, had all led up to this moment.

The chapel door had blown open. A vicious and powerful wind like nothing else had blown in and began swirling about. Aleena braced herself against the gale. Around her, many also did the same, some looking about in confusion. She heard several explosions as the SWATbots standing guard were destroyed.

Then the wind stopped.

And a voice spoke,

"Nice party, Egghead. Too bad I had to crash it."

Aleena looked up, and quickly spotted who it was. And she could hardly believe it.

"Sonic!?"

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If this chapter seems short, keep in mind that it was not my original intention for this to have chapters. I just started typing after the idea hit my head. This just seemed like a logical cutoff point. We're going to encounter some very familiar faces from the SEGA universe in the next chapter so hold onto your hats!

R&R!


	2. Rescue

Alright sorry this took so long to get up, finals are a killer and there was one scene I had to rewrite three times for various reasons. I hope you all enjoy this chapter of "A Hero's Return," where I'll introduce some familiar characters from the Sega universe.

Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic, otherwise, there would have been a second season of Underground.

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Indeed, it was her son. But he looked different. His spiked were now longer, and his eyes were now a brilliant green. He was on a ledge above them, holding himself with an incredible aura of confidence.

Robotnik was not happy.

"What are YOU doing here you miserable rodent!?" He hissed.

Sonic actually shrugged, "I just decided it was about time I dropped in and visited my old romping ground. Didn't think things would get this bad while I was gone. Although I gotta say Eggman-oh wait, you still call yourself Robotnik here, don't you?"

The tyrant growled, "Of course I do! That's always what I've called myself!"

The blue hedgehog chuckled, "Experience begs to differ. As I was saying, I'm kinda impressed. Absolutely NO ONE within the territories you control knows what's been going on beyond your empire's borders!"

"Nothing has been going on!" Robotnik sputtered. Aleena merely blinked in confusion. What was Sonic talking about? And why was Robotnik so vehemently denying it?

"Oh really?" Sonic jumped down from the ledge, landing with graceful ease on the ground before them. "Then what about Perfect Chaos? What about the ARK? What about Station Square, GUN and the various human other human nations? What about the Death Egg and the Egg Carrier? What about Metal Sonic? What about all the other things you've done beyond your empire? Are you denying that all of that happened? 'Cause frankly, that's a lot to say that none of that stuff went down."

Robotnik growled, clearly livid, "Guards, seize him!" A whole bunch of SWATbots burst in, moving to surround the blue hedgehog. Sonic merely rolled his eyes, and then vanished. In an instant, he became a blue blur, using his Spin Attack to smash the SWATbots into pieces in a matter of seconds. When he stopped, he took something out of his quills.

"I would love to stick around, but I have other things to take care of!" Sonic threw the object down. Soon, smoke had filled the chapel.

Things were moving so fast that Aleena could barely keep her composure. She couldn't see anything through the thick black veil the smoke had created. She felt a tug at her hands. She looked and saw the obscured figure of Sonic.

"Come on, this way," his whispered.

The queen didn't argue. She quietly followed her son, as he quickly (which was actually pretty slow for Sonic) led her out of the chapel. Once outside, the first thing she did was clear her eyes of the smoke. Looking around, she could see the remains of smashed SWATbots. In the distance, she could hear what sounded like a battle.

"Over here!" Aleena turned to see Sonic standing by the entrance to an alleyway. She followed him as he entered.

She recognized the first of the two Mobians in the alley way instantly.

"Knuckles!"

"Queen Aleena!" Knuckles walked up to her and bowed respectfully, "It's good to see that Sonic got you out of there, your highness."

"There's no need for formalities Knuckles. Just call me Aleena, please." Knuckles nodded in understanding.

"You know her Knuckles?" The second Mobian asked. It was a yellow-orange fox, with not one but _two_ big fluffy tails and blue eyes. He looked no older than ten, and Aleena wondered why one as young as him was here.

"She visited Angel Island once," Knuckles explained.

"Excuse me, Angel Island?" Aleena asked, unfamiliar with the name.

"It's what we call the Floating Island now," Knuckled explained. Then somewhat sheepishly, he admitted, "It's a really long story."

"Hey guys, let's save the chit-chat for later, alright?" came Sonic's voice. Aleena looked and then saw Sonic near an opened manhole cover, already partway in, "Pretty soon, there's going to be more SWATbots bearing down on us then even I can handle."

Sonic then disappeared into the sewers. The fox walked over and slipped in as well. The queen followed Knuckles over. Closer up, she could now see that there was a ladder leading down.

"Watch your step, its slippery," Knuckles advised as he turned around and started climbing down the ladder. Indeed it was slippery, for as soon as she had turned around and started to climb down, her foot slipped. She let out a small gasp of surprise and quickly grabbed the rung to prevent herself from falling.

"Mom! You alright?" Sonic called.

"Fine." Aleena responded. She climbed down slowly into the sewers, watching her step, making sure not to shift her weight until she had traction on the rung below. As she proceeded with caution, she wondered about Sonic. He looked so different now. And she had a feeling that the changes went beyond looks.

She breathed a sigh of relief when she felt her foot his solid ground. When she was completely and firmly on the ground, she turned around. The fox spoke first,

"The rendezvous point is up ahead, your highness. We're going to meet with some others who came with us. If you would just follow us…" Aleena walked up to the fox and placed a hand on his head gently,

"First of all, just call me Aleena, alright?" She spoke gently. "And second, before we go, there's something I need to do first…" While the three Mobians looked at the queen confused, as she walked up to Sonic slowly. Realization dawned on the hedgehog's face a moment before she embraced him as tightly as she could.

"Sixteen years. That's how long I've been waiting to do this. I've missed you so much…" She felt tears come to her eyes as she held her eldest son close to her. She had missed her children so much, and her heart had ached for them so badly. To hold even one of them helped ease that throb.

"Mom…I…" Sounding overwhelmed, Sonic returned the embrace.

Aleena gently stroked her son's long quills. Her heart felt more at peace at that moment then it had in years. She didn't know how long they stood like that before they finally broke apart. She saw tears in Sonic's eyes and she stroked his muzzle with the back of her hand, wiping the tears away.

Knuckles finally spoke up, "Come on. If we aren't at the meeting point on time, there's a certain black hedgehog who will be very upset."

n/n/n/n/

A loud commotion outside woke Sonia up. She spent a few moments realigning herself with reality, and then looked in the direction of the noise, outside her prison.

There was definitely something going on out there. SWATbot were being destroyed mid-warning, and the sound of them exploding was ringing in her ears. Then it grew eerily quiet. Sonia wondered for a moment what was going on, when she heard a call of "Chaos Spear!" Something exploded against the door of her prison. Then she heard a sound. She recognized it immediately. It was the sound of a Sonic Spin.

Sonia held her breath as she saw a spinning ball of quills finish burrowing its way through the metal. The hedgehog uncurled and landed on the ground. Even though the lighting was poor and she couldn't make out his form too well, there was no doubt in her mind as to the identity of her savior.

"Sonic! It's you! I knew you couldn't be dead! But where have you been!? I-" The hedgehog held up a hand for silence and motion out the opening. He then turned and climbed through. Sonia stood there for a moment. That had been odd. Sonic had made no wisecracks, no comment, given no indication of how he felt about being with his sister again. Sonia walked towards the opening and slowly climbed through.

On the other side, she realized she had made a mistake.

The hedgehog had an uncanny resemblance to her brother. There were only a few differences. His spikes, in contrast to Sonic's cobalt blue, were black and the tips were red. His eyes were different too. They were red and hard and spoke of someone who took things seriously, unlike Sonic's brown eyes, which had always seemed to sparkle with his carefree nature. On closer inspection, his shoes were different too.

The hedgehog was standing there, with his arms crossed, watching Sonia as she emerged. For a moment, Sonia wondered if maybe this _was_ her brother, and that whatever ordeal he had gone through while he was gone had changed him.

"Sonic?" She asked cautiously.

The hedgehog shook his head, "No. Although it's not the first time someone has mistaken me for him."

"Then who…?"

"There will time for that later. Right now, we need to move," He grabbed her arm and pulled her along the corridor. Sonia then remembered something important. Manic.

"Wait! I need to find my brother!" She called to the black hedgehog.

"He's already being taken care of," He responded.

She wanted to argue but realized that at this point, she had no choice but to trust this mysterious black hedgehog. As they moved through the corridors of Robotnik's citadel, she noticed SWATbot remain strewn all over. Obviously this hedgehog had done a lot of damage on his way to her.

When they reached an intersection of corridors, Sonia spotted two Mobians running up. One of them she recognized instantly.

"Manic!"

"Sonia!?"

Sonia pulled herself free of the black hedgehog's grip and pushed passed him. She ran up to her dear brother and hugged him tightly. Manic didn't return the embrace, he simply pretended to be embarrassed.

"Missed you too sis."

"I'm so glad you're alright!" Sonia exclaimed, giving the green hedgehog a quick kiss on the cheek.

"As sweet as this is, we really need to get moving," said the other Mobian, a female bat who was questionably dressed.

"Did you get the other things we needed?" The black hedgehog asked.

"Of course, what do you take me for?" The bat walked up to Sonia and Manic and held out a paw. When Sonia looked, she saw that there, in the bat's hand, was a pair of crystal medallions.

"Where did you get these?" Manic asked.

The bat shrugged, "I picked them up."

Slowly, Sonia reached out and took her medallion from the bat's hand. Her medallion was shaped like a keyboard, even engraved with piano keys if one looked closely enough. She put the string loop over her head. The medallion came to rest on her chest, exactly where it belonged. She took a minute to admire it, contemplating all it meant.

Suddenly she was pushed very roughly to the side. She turned quickly just in time to see the black hedgehog become a blur. She heard the sound of laser firing. _SWATbots!_ Quickly looking in the direction, Sonia was just in time to see the black hedgehog quickly spinball into three bots in succession, destroying them.

_Wow._ Sonia couldn't believe it. This hedgehog had to nearly as fast as Sonic, and he seemed so strong! Just who was he?

She couldn't dwell on it much longer. There were more SWATbots approaching. Instinctively, her hand went to her medallion and she activated it. The medallion gave a brief sputter of power before giving out. Nothing else happened. _What!?_ Something was wrong here. A glance at Manic told her that a similar thing had just happened to him as well.

She jumped out of the way of a SWATbot laser. Why hadn't their medallions worked? The only other time that the crystal objects had failed to come through for them was when…Sonia suddenly had a sinking realization. The medallions worked only as long as her and her dear brothers were in harmony with one another, as long as, their occasional sibling rivalry aside, they still acknowledged and loved each other as family.

"Get down! Damn it!" The black hedgehog shoved Sonia out of the way of a stray laser. He became a black blur once again and there were several explosions as SWATbots were destroyed.

Sonia, however, was lost in her own thoughts. How could the medallions work if something happened to her or one of her brothers? A lump suddenly formed in her throat. What if something had happened to Sonic? Maybe that was the reason he hadn't come back yet. Because he simply wasn't around anymore. A voice in her head screamed at her, telling her that something could not have happened to her speedster brother, that there was likely some other explanation for the medallions to suddenly stop working. But another voice told her that it was still a possibility.

"Chaos Spear!" The black hedgehog let out an incredible surge of spear shaped energy, which destroyed whatever remained of the SWATbots. "Come on!" He grabbed Sonia's arm, jolting the pink hedgehog back to reality. He pulled her along one corridor. Behind her, Sonia could hear Manic and the bat following them.

Up ahead she saw it. An exit in the form of a hangar. And the hangar door was rapidly closing.

The black hedgehog stopped abruptly. He turned around as Manic and the bat finished catching up. To the bat he said, "Can you get yourself out of here?"

The bat smiled, "If I can't, then the echidna's the better treasure hunter. And there's no way in hell I'm going to let that be true."

"Good." He reached over and grabbed Manic's arm with his free hand.

"Dude, what are y-WHOAA!" Manic never got to finish his sentence as the black hedgehog suddenly took off with both the pink and green hedgehog in tow. Sonia was surprised both by the sudden movement forward and the hedgehog's speed. _He has to be nearly as fast as Sonic._ The black hedgehog was moving forward using the jet skates that his shoes apparently were. At the speed they were going, Sonia wasn't even worried whether they would make it out of the hangar. SWATbots fired at them, but the black hedgehog easily jetted past them.

Sonia didn't start worrying until they were out the hangar. Below them, was a long fall. And there was nothing between them and the ground besides thin air. Suddenly, she wondered if the hedgehog who had rescued them was slightly crazy. She screamed as they began to fall.

"Grab on to me!" The black hedgehog yelled. Sonia didn't argue. She wrapped her arms around the black hedgehog's neck and shut her eyes. The other set of arms on the hedgehog's neck told her that Manic was also clinging for dear life. She was jolted as their decent was suddenly slowed. She managed to summon up the courage to look down. The black hedgehog had activated his jet shoes, and their apparent hovering capability, which was unable to hold up all three of them, nevertheless was enough to slow their fall.

The second they hit the ground, the black hedgehog took off again. Sonia wondered where they were going now. Other thoughts entered her mind. Who was this black hedgehog? Why had he saved them? And why had her and Manic's medallions mysteriously stopped working?

The black hedgehog came to a halt in front of a manhole cover. Sonia let go, thoroughly shaken. Manic did the same. Sonia heard something off in the distance. After a few moments, she realized that it sounded like a battle was occurring. Was Robotnik conducting another raid?

The black hedgehog walked over to the manhole cover and opened it up. "In here." He jumped into the manhole, vanishing into the sewers below. Sonia wrinkled her nose in disgust,

"Ick, do we really have to go down there?"

"I don't think we have much choice sis. There's going to be a whole bunch of SWATbots looking for us and without our medallions, we're pretty much powerless. As mysterious as this guy is, he _did_ save our tails. I think we can trust him," said Manic as he walked over to the manhole and began climbing down the ladder, "Besides it's not that bad, I lived down here for years."

As Manic vanished down the manhole, Sonia slowly walked over. She turned around, and began climbing down the ladder. Manic and the black hedgehog were waiting at the bottom. A few steps from the ground she jumped off. The black hedgehog spoke again,

"This way, there's a meeting point where we're going to rendezvous with others."

As he began to walk off, Manic interjected, "Wait! What about that bat?"

"She can take care of herself," The black hedgehog replied.

"Who exactly are we meeting?" Sonia asked.

"You'll see. Now come on."

He continued walking. Sonia and Manic looked at each other. After a moment's consideration, they silently decided that they didn't have any other option and followed their mysterious rescuer into the underground tunnels.

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Okay, anyone who calls himself/herself a Sonic fan should be able to _instantly_ identify the bat and/or at least the black hedgehog. Those that can't are either new to the franchise or have only played the classic games.

I'm going to introduce more Sega characters before this is over, including a few that I almost guarantee will make some of you go "OMG! I can't believe she included them!"

A sincere thanks to all my reviewers!

R&R!


	3. Reunion

Hey again everyone! Sorry for the delay in updating, various things occurred, among them losing the USB drive containing the original file. So I had to rewrite this. I actually like how it came out. I hope you all enjoy the third chapter of "A Hero's Return!"

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot.

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_Okay, so far, so good. Only question is, how did Shadow's mission go? _Sonic mentally snorted. The black hedgehog had nothing to fear from the SWATbots that made up most of Eggman's forces within his empire. Shadow and Rouge would be waiting for them at the meeting point. And with them would be the two people that Sonic had longed to see since he decided it was time for him to return to the Eggman Empire. Currently, he was in the sewers beneath Robotropolis with Kncukles, Tails, and his mother, Queen Aleena herself.

Sonic had been so focused on just getting his mother out of there, that he had nearly missed the magnitude of the moment. Thankfully, the purple hedgehog had reminded him. After that emotional moment, he had quickly pulled himself back together. There would be plenty of time to properly enjoy the long-awaited precense of his mother later.

The past months had been hectic for him. But it had also been, in a way, enjoyable. During his adventures beyond the boundries of Robotnik's, who now called himself Eggman, empire, he had gained more then he ever thought possible. Now here he was, ready to rejoin the Freedom Fighters and permantly destroy the only foothold the Eggman had gained in the world. The blue hedgehog wondered what the mad scientist was doing now. Probably fuming over how victory had been snatched from him with it had been just within his reach. Sonic mentally siggered at the image.

The plan from here was that after Sonic and his group met up with Shadow and Rouge, they would work their way to the others they had brought with them. The others, a large and varied group, were currently serving as a distraction, keeping most of Eggman's forces and possibly his two lackeys, Sleet and Dingo, busy.

Sleet and Dingo. Heh. Those two weren't even in his league now.

His usual impatience, combined with a partial desperation to see_ them_ again, kicked in after the group had nearly reached the redevous point.

"Hey Tails, Knux, I'm going up ahead. See if Shads and and Rouge are there yet." Sonic said

"Shads? Rouge?" Aleena questioned.

"Shadow," said Knuckles, "Black hedgehog who would destroy an entire city block at the drop of a hat. Rouge is a bat who's annoying, batty..."

"And whom you completely and desperately like..." Sonic teased.

"Shut it!"

Sonic chuckled. Getting a rise out of Knuckles was always fun. "I'll see you guys at the meeting point."

"Okay Sonic. Watch yourself," was Tails's reply.

Sonic took off with his usual burst of speed. A mere few seconds later he stopped, ears perked for any noises. His sharp hedgehog hearing quckly picked up a sound. The sound of someone approaching. It had to be _them_. Excited, he dashed off again. He called out their names. The names of the two he wanted to see again so much,

"Sonia! Manic!"

Turning a corner, Sonic saw Shadow, leading Sonia and Manic. The pink and green hedgehogs were in suprisingly good shape given their imprisonment. They had no idea how glad he was to see them again. Sonic came to a halt as his siblings looked as him incredulously,

"Sonic!?" They both cried out in disbelief.

There was a tense moment in which none of them said anything. Just by looking at the two, Sonic could tell that they were both processing what they were seeing. The moment was broken by Sonia who rushed forward and hugged the blue hedgehog tightly. He returned embrace as he heard her whisper,

"You're alright..."

"Of course I am sis. Why wouldn't I be?" He spoke reassuringly.

Sonia didn't respond, instead hugging him even tighter, as if afriad he would vanish at any moment.

"Sonic!" Sonic looked up as Manic ran up. "Bro! I can't believe it!" Sonic quickly took one arm away from his sister to give his triplet brother a high-five. Sonia broke away from him as Manic continued, "Where have you been all this time? A lot of people thought you had kicked the bucket!"

Sonic chuckled. Oh, if only he could explain it all in such a short amount of time. The adventures he had these past months had been incredible, some so much so that he had a feeling his family would have a hard time believing it. Fortunently, he had lots of witnesses to back him up. "It's a long story," The blue hedgehog said, "A _really_ long story." Then he turned to Shadow. "Where's Rouge?"

"We had to split up," Shadow replied, "She's more then capable of handling herself and will catch up with us."

"Knuckles will probably be relieved," Sonic commented. Things had gotten so awkward for the echidna around the bat thief, that the past few weeks he had used every possible means to avoid her. He had even left his island briefly during one of Rouge's attempted thefts of the Master Emerald, which Sonic, and several others, suspected was actually a way for her to get Knuckles to face her. The bat had left without the Master Emerald in the face of the temporary guardian that Knuckles had left to look over the Emerald for him. Really though, everyone, even Sonic who had himself recently realized just how little he knew about romance, knew that Knuckles was delaying the inevitable.

"Knuckles is here?" Sonia asked in suprise.

"Yeah, along with someone else I'm sure you're both eager to meet." On cue, he picked up the sound of a group approaching. Sonic stepped aside from his siblings line of sight to allow them to see who it was. They deserved this. Sonic had had his moment. Now he simply watched his sibling's reactions as his group appeared from around the corner.

Sonia, predictably, welled up with tears, "Mother?"

In the next moment, both the pink and green hedgehogs were in their mother's arms. Sonic watched sliently as he watched his family reunite. After a few minutes, Aleena looked up at Sonic and nodded. Taking the hint, Sonic walked over. All four hedgehogs embraced each other. None of the onlookers dared to inturrupt the reunion. Safe and secrue the four were, in the knowledge that, at long last, they could be a family.

"Hate to break up the family reunion, but we've got problems."

Sonic reluctantly broke from his family and turned around in time to see Rouge land, having apprently come from another sewer pipe that branched off nearby.

"Rouge. Its good to see you made it out," said Shadow. Sonic allowed his eyes to dart backward. Just as he thought, the bat's sudden appearance had caused Knuckles to turn a deep shade of red.

"It was easy, too easy," the bat thief spoke with a tinge of uneasiness in her voice, "Something's up here and I don't like it."

"What do you mean?" Tails asked.

"Think about it for a moment kiddo. This kingdom is the only real holding that Eggman has. I expected it to be guarded by only the best that insane doctor has. Instead, he mostly has these weak robots that represent only a fraction of what I know he's capable of."

"In other words, he's holding back," Shadow surmised.

"And its obvious why," said Sonic, "He doesn't want anyone within his empire getting hints of what's been going on in the world at large." Sonic had come to that conclusion rather quickly. Once he realized, from talking to a few people living in outlying villages, that no one knew what had been going on beyond Eggman's empire, it didn't take very much to figure out why. It wouldn't do anything for the dictator if the Resistance got wind of how one of their most powerful members, long absent from their ranks, had defeated Eggman time after time.

"If I may inturrupt," Aleena said, "A few times now I've heard the name Eggman. Who is he?"

"Just another twisted persona that nutjob, Robotnik, has thought up for himself," Knuckles said flatly.

"Here's another question, just who the heck are you guys? Knuckles we know, but what about the rest of you?" Sonia asked, her head turning quizzically toward Shadow and Rouge in particular.

"That's right we never got around to proper introductions in the middle of all that, did we?" Rouge purred, "I'm Rouge the Bat. I'm an agent from GUN, the human military. Of course, you three probably don't have a clue what that is."

Tails spoke next, his two tails twitching eagerly, "I'm Miles Prower. But everyone just calls me Tails."

"I can see why," Manic noted, his eyes following the two tails that swished behind the kitsune. Sonic made a mental note to inform his triplet brother that Tails could be sensitve to teasing about his unusual number of tails. Sonic didn't want the kitsune to be reminded of his rough time on Westside Island.

"And what about you?" Sonia asked, directing her question at Shadow.

Shadow 'hmphed' before answering, "I'm Shadow the Hedgehog. I'm here as Rouge's partner."

"It's very nice to meet you all," Aleena said, "And thank you all for what you've done."

"So, bro," Manic said, turning to Sonic, "What exactly happened to you? Why'd you leave?"

"More importantly," said Sonia, "Why didn't you come back before now?"

Sonic responded by chuckling, sounding more weary then he meant to. "Hoo boy, where do I even start?" How could he possibly even imply to them even a fraction of the magnitude of what he'd been through?

There was a loud screech.

Immediately, Sonic tensed. All of his senses were on high alert. Around him, his friends had similarly tensed and ready themselves. Sonic's time outside the empire had only served to reinforce many of the habits and instincts he had developed during his time with the Freedom Fighters. Another loud screech. The blue hedgehog's sharp hearing informed him that it was coming from somewhere above. There was another screech followed by something landing, hard, on the ground above them, shaking the tunnel. Sonic laid his ears back. He did not like the feeling he was getting from this...Yet another sharp screech and then something slammed through the tunnel ceiling.

It was a large mechanical beak.

The beak was right above them, mere inches away from their heads. It quickly withdrew. Sonic looked up through the hole it had created. There, towering above them, was a large mechanical pteradactyl. Sonic knew, instictively, that this was one of Eggman's creation. His time fighting the tyrant had allowed him to instantly identify what had been made by the mad doctor. That, and there was no one else except his buddy Tails that could possibly make something like it. The pterodactyl screeched loudly as it looked down at its prey through the hole. It began using its talons to widen the hole, causing rock and derbis to fall from the tunnel's ceiling.

A long dormant protective instinct, which during his time outside the empire had been reserved for Tails, drove Sonic to quickly grab his siblings and pull them a short distance away from the falling debris, as well as away from the mechanical beast that now threatned them. His two siblings merely looked up at the creature in disbelief.

"Dude, what it that!?" Manic yelled.

"Something that we don't really have time to deal with," was Shadow's response.

A confident smile crossed Sonic's face. Looked like he was going to get the chance to have some fun. "I'll take care of it," He declared, "You guys get my family out of here. I'll keep this thing busy." Before anyone could say otherwise Sonic crouched and let out one of his famous quips, "Hey birdbrain!" He launched himself at the pterodactyl. Jumping up and curling up into a ball, he slammed into it. It screeched in suprise as it recoiled. Sonic landed a short distance away, now outside of the sewer. He looked down and saw his family, looking up with a mixture of concern and amazement, while his friends tried to pull them down the tunnel to safety. Sonic smiled, "Don't worry, I'll be fine. I've handled worse. A LOT worse!" They didn't seem convinced, but nevertheless the three hedgehogs followed the rest of the group down the tunnel.

A loud screech drew the blue hedgehog's attention back to the pterodactyl. Sonic allowed himself a moment of indulging his ego. How fast could he take this thing down, he wondered? Once upon a time, this pterodactyl would have given him and his siblings hell. Now, with just him alone, it was as good as scrap metal. It wouldn't be easy of course, it never was, but the challenge was part of what made these fights so enjoyable. One thing was for sure nowadays: Sending 'ole Egghead and his various creations packing never got old.

n/n/n/n/

"Will Sonic be okay?" Sonia asked once the group had put some distance between them and the pterodactyl.

"Sonic can handle anything," said Tails, "I wouldn't worry about him."

"But that thing was huge!" Manic argued, "Sonic can't possibly handle that by himself!" A short silence suddenly put that statement into doubt. "Can he?"

"Sonic's different," said Knuckles, "What happened beyond the empire's borders changed him. He's more then capable of handling himself now."

Manic was left to ponder that statement as the group continued to work their way through the sewer tunnel. Sonic, different? What did that mean? His hand went to his medallion. Something didn't make sense here. Earlier, his medallion had fizzled. He still didn't know why. Now that he thought about it...His memory flashed back to when he had finally seen his long-lost brother again. One thing that growing up on the streets had taught him was to pay attention to detail. And now one detail about his brother stood out.

"He didn't have it..." Manic muttered to himself.

"Huh?" Sonia turned to him questioningly.

He turned to his sister, "His medallion Sonia. I didn't see it. I don't think he has it anymore."

"Now that you mention it," Sonia drifted off for a moment as she thought back, "He DIDN'T have it, did he?" She looked at Manic with concern, "Maybe that's why our own medallions stopped working?"

"Maybe. But we can't be sure," Manic replied.

As the group continued to make their way through the sewer tunnels, Manic pondered over recent events. First, months ago, Sonic up and vanished. Then he and Sonia fell into a clever trap placed by Robotnik. Yet, instead of being roboticized they had instead been imprisoned. One thing had lead to another and now here they were. The green hedgehog had a feeling that there was more going on here then their escorts let on. On the bright side, they had finally reunited with their mother. A part of him was enjoying every precious second of her company. According to the Oracle, the war would end soon after the royal triplets found their mother.

But why was the feeling in his gut telling him otherwise?

The black hedgehog, Shadow, who was spearheading the group, made a motion to stop. It took Manic a second to realize that the sounds of battle he had heard earlier were now much louder. Knuckles, who had been a nice suprise to see, walked over to a nearby ladder. He climbed up and peeked out the sewer hatch. He looked back down at the group waiting below,

"Looks clear. The others shouldn't be far from here." With that, Knuckles went through the hatch completely and on the streets above. Manic noticed his sister's expression directed at the echidna as he went up. Rouge followed close behind. Shadow went up next. Manic decided to follow them. He was halfway up the ladder when a glint of mischieviouness danced in his eyes. Turning around, he said,

"Hey sis, don't tell me you still have a thing for Knuckles."

Sonia immediately turned bright red. "W-what makes you say that?"

"Aw, c'mon sis, I saw the way you looked at him."

The fox (How did he have two tails anyway, Manic wondered?), Tails, blinked and turned to Sonia, "You like Knuckles?"

Sonia was now completely red at what was obviously an innocent inquiry. "Well...He's cute but..."

"Are you all coming up or not?" Came Shadow's voice.

"Coming!" Tails yelled back. The kitsune walked over to the ladder and looked up at Manic, "We better get moving. Eggman's bound to send machines besides that pteradactyl after us."

Manic nodded in understanding. He turned back around and started climbing up the ladder again. When he popped out in the street above, he saw Knuckles, Rouge and Shadow waiting. He climbed completely out. His sister and mother were right behind him. Tails brought up the rear.

The battle that sounded like it was right next to them did nothing to quell the growing unease in Manic's stomach.

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If there are any spelling mistakes, forgive me, I didn't have the luxury of spellcheck this time around.

Not much action this chapter, but I'll more then make up for it in the next chapter. I'll also introduce a platheon of Sega Sonic characters, a few of which I can assure you will be very pleasant suprises.

R&R!


	4. Chapter 4

Hey, guys, sorry the update took so long! So, anyway, after looking over the last chapter, I realized that it wasn't really my best work. I found the original file, so I may just replace it with that. This chapter introduces a whole bunch of Sega Sonic characters, including two that may be a nice surprise for some. There's going to be plently of action in this chapter and we're going to see what happened with Sonic and that pteradactyl.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot.

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Sonia wasn't too sure what to expect.

So much had happened, and no one had offered much of an explanation. What had happened to Sonic? What had made him suddenly return? Why had their medallions suddenly stopped working? So many questions, yet those who might know the answers weren't saying anything. They had mentioned others, but Sonia had no idea who those others were.

Of course, she knew now. She had also found out the source of the battle. Manic probably summed it up best,

"Dude. This is crazy."

From the rooftop that their escorts had led them up, they could see a group of Mobians were single-handedly fighting what had to be most of Robotnik's forces. There was a hedgehog with silver quills that zipped around at speeds comparable to Sonic. Around him, objects seemed to lift up of their own accord and slam into the SWATbots. There was cat with light purple fur and darker purple robes that seemed to be throwing...fire? Sonia blinked at the sight and then noted the other fighters. There was a crocodile who was using its natural strength to great effect. There was an armadillo with a red shell that was literally ripping many of the robots apart. There was a bee that zipped around and a bright yellow flying squirrel that helped it. Sonia thought that was it until, out of nowhere, a purple chameleon marterialized and threw a few well-aimed shurikens. Hovering above the chaos was the red vechicle that Sonia knew belonged to Sleet and Dingo.

"What's going on?" Aleena asked.

"These are the others that came with us. They were supposed to serve as a distraction while we conducted our mission," said Rouge. Which was of course, Sonia thought, getting us away from Robotnik's clutches.

Tails called out, "Blaze! Silver! We got them!"

The cat stopped and looked in their direction. She nodded in understanding. Sonia heard her call out, "Fall back to base camp! Ray, Charmy, go find Amy!" The bee and squirrel snapped to attention. They looked at the cat and nodded. They then both vanished down an alleyway.

Sonia and the rest of the group was led down a ladder by Shadow to the street below. The cat was waiting, strangely calm despite the intense battle raging. She started talking as soon as Shadow hit the ground. "I was wondering when you all were going to show up. Eggman has so many of these things. It's ridiculous! I don't think we've destroyed even half of them. And they're so weak! Why the hell would Eggman keep these things as his main police force?" Sonia finished climbing down the ladder. She kept an eye on her mother and brother still climbing down while observing the conversation taking place.

"We were held up by one of Eggman's latest inventions," said Shadow, "We also think that Eggman uses these..." he glanced at Sonia.

"SWATbots." She told him.

"SWATbots, in order to keep people within his empire from suspecting that something it happening beyond its borders."

The cat nodded in understanding, "That makes sense. Why use something more powerful when what you have is doing a well enough job?" She then turned her attention to Sonia and her family. "So you three must be the royal family of Mobius, Sonic's family right?"

Sonia nodded, "That's right. I'm his sister. My name is Sonia Hedgehog."

"I'm Manic."

"And I am Aleena." Her mother finished.

The cat gave Sonia's mother a small smile, "So you're the 'lost queen' of the Kingdom of Mobius. My name is Blaze the Cat. I'm royalty as well...at least where I come from."

"And where exactly is that?" Aleena asked, curious.

Blaze's face became serious, "You probably wouldn't believe me. And right now there's no time. We have to blast our way through these things and get back to base camp."

"But what about Sonic!?" Sonia asked, worry for her brother welling up.

"Yeah, we aren't going anywhere without him." Manic agreed.

"You're actually worried about that blue hedgehog?" Blaze asked. "Honestly I wouldn't. He's proven time and time again that's he more then a match for whatever the world throws at him. But I guess it makes sense that you would worry."

"Blaze?"

Blaze turned around, "What is it Silv-what in the Goddess's name?"

The SWATbots were retreating. They were turning around and walking back to where ever they had come from. And they were leaving behind a very confused group of fighters.

"Robotnik must recalled them," Sonia reasoned, "But why?" She felt uneasy. Something was wrong here.

"It can't be anything good," was Blaze's response. "Follow me." She led the group to over where the other fighters waited. The silver hedgehog walked up to them,

"Blaze, I've got a bad feeling about this. Why would these robots retreat?" You could almost see the question mark above the hedgehog's head.

"Something's up," said Blaze, "Not sure what but it's something."

"Um...who are you?" Sonia asked.

The silver hedgehog snapped to attention, as if he had just noticed them. He smiled, "Sorry. My name is Silver the Hedgehog. Me and Blaze came here with everyone else to help Sonic."

A loud screech inturupted their conversation. A yell of "Get down!" and everyone ducked just as something huge flew close overhead, ruffling their fur. When Sonia looked to see what the heck it was, she gasped slightly. It was the pteradactyl. It was flying away from them but it would be back in a matter of moments.

A blue blur came a spilt second later and stopped near the group. It was Sonic. He was focused on the mecha.

Tails spoke up nervously, "Uh...Sonic?"

Sonic took one look at the group and Sonia almost swore that she saw his muzzle pale slightly. Despite that he smiled cockily, "Hey guys."

n/n/n/n/

_Now I've done it. _Sonic looked up at the pterodactyl, which was reeling around for another strike.

He had been so distracted fighting this thing that he hadn't realized that he had led it straight to the rest of the group. And now he had to fend this thing off while his friends got his family to safety. He had really screwed up this time

He heard Knuckles snap at him, "I thought you were supposed to keep this thing distracted!"

The blue hedgehog wasn't in the mood, "Oh, be quiet knucklehead. Crap!" The mecha was coming at them fast with outstretched talons. He would have to act fast. He was ready to launch himself at the mecha again when it suddenly stopped. He was caught off guard by this. The mecha hovered in mid-air, not moving.

Then he heard a voice. A familiar voice. A voice that he had learned to hate ten times over.

"Well, Sonic. It had been a while. I suppose I should thank you for leading me to what I want."

Sonic clenched his teeth, "Eggman." He could sense his friends behind him tense. Each of them had their own negative experience with the insane scientist. Eggman was their sworn enemy, the one at the heart of everything.

"I must admit, I was surprised when you so courteously showed up at the wedding. I didn't think you had any knowledge of it. Which reminds me, my queen, we'll have to finish up with that bit of business when we get back." Sonic didn't have to look to guess at his mother's reaction.

Realizing that getting worked up over his mistake wasn't going to help, Sonic forced himself to relax. He smirked and said, "Shows what you know Egghead. You don't keep as tight a guard on your borders as you've led yourself to believe."

"What does that supposed to mean!?"

Oh, he _loved_ getting on his enemy's nerves! With a knowing smile, he said, "How do you think I found out about what's been going on in the first place? I decided it was time to come back the moment I found out."

"Oh ho, and I'm willing to place my bets that if you had never found out, you probably would have never come, back, would you?" Sonic tensed. He didn't like where this was going.

He heard Shadow, "That's unlikely. GUN had been planning a strike against your empire for a while now."

"That's right. The human military has had planning against you for ages." That was Rouge.

"But they never followed through with those plans, did they?" Eggman pointed out, "They knew that my forces were superior! They know that they don't stand a chance!" He chuckled, "I'm willing to guess, Sonic, that if you hadn't been reminded of the situation here, you would have never returned! You value your freedom beyond the empire too much to even think of returning! Otherwise, you would have come back here earlier! If it wasn't for whatever made you find out about what was going to happen here, you would have willingly left you friends and family to their fate, never giving a care in the world! You only came back because you knew you couldn't live with yourself if you had known what was going to happen and let it!"

All anyone saw Sonic disappearing and a blue streak followed by the sound of the pterodactyl screeches. Landing nearby was one _very_ angry hedgehog! Sonic felt furious! How dare Eggman question his loyalty, his reason!? Did he really think...!?

When he spoke, he couldn't keep the anger out of his voice, "The only reason I didn't come back earlier is because of you!! Do you really think I would have abandoned the Resistance, my mom, my siblings!? I planned to come back for ages! But I couldn't, because there was no guarantee that you wouldn't have attacked while I was busy!!"

An evil chuckle was the hedgehog's response, "Oh ho! Have I ruffled your quills?" Then the doctor's tone grew dark, "Mark my words rodent. This fight will be different then our previous ones. The rules have changed. And by the time the dust settles, I will be left standing victorious!"

Oh, he had left himself wide open! "That would actually be almost impressive," Sonic commented, "Given how every other time we've gone head to head, I seem to trash your inventions pretty easily."

There was a 'hmph.' "Be as cocky as you want rodent!" Then he let out an evil cackle, "Go, my Egg Ptera! Rip Sonic to shreds and claim what is mine!" The pterodactyl screeched. Then dived. Sonic quickly hit the ground and felt the mecha pass by close overhead. He heard a lound screech and knew it was only a matter of time before it came back around again. He quickly turned to the group behind him,

"Get to safety! I'll handle this!"

Silver and Blaze nodded in understanding. As the large group began to move, a screech informed them all that the Egg Ptera was about to attack again. Sonic quickly prepared himself. Tuning out everything else he rocketed forward. He leapt into the air and curled up into a ball, meeting the mecha as it was swooping down. It screeched again. Sonic landed nearby.

The mecha also landed. With another scree it began flapping its wings rapidly. The blue hedgehog was caught off guard by the force of the wind that it generated and was nearly knocked off his feet. Sheer willpower kept his feet on the ground. Regaining his composure, he went as fast as he could against the wind. The force against him made it difficult to accelerate. Deciding there had to be a quicker way, he curled up into a ball and revved up. His aptly named Spin Dash did the trick. He rocketed through the strong wind and slammed into the mecha. It screeched as he jumped back and landed. The Egg Ptera flapped its wings and took off. It flew straight up, then almost straight down, clearly intending to dive-bomb the hedgehog. Sonic zipped out of the way and felt the wind in his quills as the Egg Ptera roared past.

Okay, he was either going to have to wait for it to land again, or find some way to reach it in the air. His eyes quickly darted to the nearby buildings. There was a small alleyway between two of them. If he could wall-jump that with enough speed, he could launch himself into the air and get at the mecha. Deciding on that course of action, he quickly zipped over to the alleyway. In a blink of an eye, Sonic had bounced off the walls and successfully launched into the air.

A second later he felt a sharp, burning pain. He fell to the ground, shaken. _Okay, this thing had lasers. That pretty much rules out an arial assult. _He looked up at the mecha, which was preparing for another dive. Another idea popped into his head. If he timed his Spin Dash just right, he could attack the mecha head on. Curling up into a ball again, he revved up. A close by scree was his signal. He released. The blue blur slammed into the pteradactyl. It screeched in pain. It was blown back and landed nearby, it's talons gripping the ground in an attempt to stabalize itself. Sonic landed nearby as well. The pteradactyl regained its balance. It let out a small scree. Then it let out an earpiecering screech, accompanied by what seemed like shockwaves. Sonic covered his ears and shut his eyes while trying to keep his balance. That was loud! And it hurt his ears. It only lasted a minute but it felt like much longer.

Just as the awful sound stopped and the shockwaves ceased, the blue hedgehog felt something hit him. Hard. It knocked him off his feet and the force threw him far. He hit the wall of a nearby building and winced. Oh that had smarted. Opening his eyes, he could see the mecha, a little too close for comfort. It had obviously hit him with its beak like a baseball bat and was now coming at him. After quickly deciding that nothing was broken and despite his body's complaints he sidestepped out of the way. A split second later, the Egg Ptera's beak slammed into the spot where he had been just a moment before. It withdrew its beak and rounded on the blue hedgehog again. This time though, Sonic was ready. The pteradactyl once again let out a scree in suprise as Sonic slammed into it with a Spin Attack.

The mecha seemed to realize at this moment that a ground assult wasn't working and it took off. The blue hedgehog barely dodged a laser that it shot as it rose. He watched it as it rose and flapped in one direction and began wheeling around. It was going to swoop at him again. And lasers or not, the mecha was sparking, the damage to it heavy from multiple Spin Attacks. If he could just hit it one more time, it would be finished. Without really thinking much about it, he had bounced up the nearby alleyway again. No lasers stopped him this time. Curling up into a ball, he slammed into the mecha. When he landed on the ground below, he looked up.

The Egg Ptera hovered in the air for a moment. Then a few rays of light leaked out from it. Then it exploded. Shrapnel went flying everywhere. Sonic stood confidently as he watched the mecha fall to pieces. Another fight done. Now it was time to head back to base camp. As he walked toward where the rest of the group was waiting, he heard Tails yell, "Sonic, look out!"

"Huh?" He quickly turned around. Something was rising up right behind him, like some kind of mechanical wraith. It was composed of a mish mash of all kinds of mechanical parts. And it was poised to attack him. A metal beak in the middle of the mess of parts told him that it was at least partially composed of the pteradactyl's remains. Sonic braced himself for the inevitable hit. No time to react he just hoped this thing...

_POW!_

Sonic just blinked as an all-too-familiar hammer came down upon the mecha, smashing it into pieces instantly. He guessed so many parts being thrown together didn't make the thing very stable. However, his focused now turned to his unexpected savior. She was smiling lightly. Ray and Charmy were behind her, puffing and looking exshausted.

"We found her..." said Ray, sounding just as worn out as he looked.

"Sonic!" The pink hedgehog tackled Sonic and hugged him tightly.

"Oof! Hey Ames." Amy Rose was Sonic's longtime admirer and, more recently, his girlfriend. It had been quite the suprise to the blue hedgehog when he realized that his feelings for the female hedgehog ran deeper then he had orginally thought. He thought that Knuckles would never let him live it down when he had decided to start dating her. Of course, Amy's reaction was the expected one. Since then, Sonic had suprisingly found that there was a lot to like about the pink hedgehog...and possibly even love.

"Oh, I'm so glad you're alright! I heard something went wrong so I went looking for you!" She squeezed him tighter. Behind her, Mighty and Espio checked up on Ray and Charmy. When the speedster's vision blurred the scene, he realized that Amy had started squeezing him even tighter.

"Ames...Can't..." He choked out.

"Oh sorry!" She quickly let go of him. Sonic took a deep breath to get air flowing again. Amy would suffocate him one of these days with those death-hugs of hers. She took his hand gently and the blue hedgehog took a moment to admire her. She really was beautiful, and even though she could be pushy, relentless, short-tempered, and even stalkerish, she was loyal, dedicated and made it very clear that she loved him very much.

"Uh...Sonic...?" Sonic turned to see his family approaching. Seeing them triggered memories of a time that now seemed so far away, another lifetime ago it seemed to him. "Who's that?" Manic asked.

Amy pushed herself in front of him. "You must be Sonic's family! I'm Amy Rose, Sonic's girlfriend!" Sonic immediately felt his muzzle go hot. Count on Amy to be straight forward.

"Girlfriend?" Manic looked to Sonic for confirmation. Taking a deep breath, the blue hedgehog stepped up to Amy and put an arm around her shoulders.

"Yeah. What can I say? She started out stalking, and eventually grew on me." He would tell them the full story soon.

He glanced back at the mess of mechical parts behind, which included the remains of SWATbots and the Egg Ptera. He wasn't one to contemplate things very much, but the Egg Ptera worried him a little. What would happen if Eggman started throwing more of his mechas out there? What if he started using them against the Resistance? Would they be able to handle it?

He reminded himself that there were more important matters at hand. He had to get his family to the saftey of the base camp that was set up. Then they would have to figure out some way to reunite with the Resistance, and start planning their final strike into the heart of Eggman's Empire. The doctor wouldn't go down easy, Sonic knew this. He would put up a fight, he would defend his holding to the end. It would be nothing like previous conflicts. Like the doctor had said, the rules had changed. The events beyond the empire had seen to that.

Sonic the Hedgehog had finally returned to the Empire. The Goddess only knew what would happen now.

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If you guys haven't guessed yet, the two surprise characters I had planned for this chapter were Mighty and Ray! Aw, come on! Those two aren't in enough stories! For those who don't know, they were both in the arcade game, SegaSonic the Hedgehog. Mighty was also in Knuckles' Chaotix. I really like them, with Ray being one of my favorite characters. How those two wound up with the invasion group will be explained in a later chapter. And, believe it or not, this isn't the end of character introductions. In the next chapter I'll introduce two more Sega characters. Then that'll be it...for now. ;) Before you ask, I do have experience juggling so many characters. My "Twist in Time" story I think proves that I'm able to handle several characters in one story. Don't worry, each character will have a significant part to play!

Sonamy fans should love this. There is going to be some Sonamy in this story if you haven't guessed already (should be interesting given how I've never really written romance before). There's also going to be some Silvaze, and one other suprise pairing that I promise will have an interesting impact on the story.

A sincere thanks to all my reviewers!

R&R!


End file.
